A high-level meeting of the 36 state governors with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, primed to draw out some far-reaching and severe measures to tackle the economic hardship that has beset Nigerians under this administration, turned out to be an anti-climax as the President was absent at the meeting.
Many had expected that the first in-person meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) with Buhari since the COVID-19 outbreak will address the slew of economic challenges – growing sovereign debts, falling revenues, spiraling inflation rate, worsening energy crisis, exchange rate problem, the rising cost of production, among others. Added to the frustration is the growing sense that politicians have left ordinary citizens to their fate.
Coming barely 10 months to the end of the administration, stakeholders think the intervention was coming too late to make a significant impact on the economy.
Yet, a few analysts think otherwise. They admitted that the government should have been more proactive in its approach but argued that efforts had better come late than never.
Experts say the price crisis is worse than the country’s consumer price index (CPI), a computation that has not been updated since 2009.
And with election spending expected to rise exponentially, with huge consequences for liquidity amid an unabating foreign exchange crisis, experts have argued that the inflation trouble could be worse in the coming months.
They also called for an immediate deduction in the cost of governance, right-sizing of government workers across states and the Federal Government, as well as improvement in revenue net.
Source: Guardian